Making Christian Landscapes in Atlantic Europe: Conversion and Consolidation in the Early Middle Ages

Making Christian Landscapes in Atlantic Europe: Conversion and Consolidation in the Early Middle Ages

ISBN: 9781782052005

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Description

Landscapes across Europe were transformed, both physically and conceptually, during the early medieval period (c AD 400-1200), and these changes were bound up with the conversion to Christianity and the development of ecclesiastical power structures. Whilst Christianity represented a more or less common set of beliefs and ideas, early medieval societies were characterised by vibrant diversity: much can potentially be learned about these societies by comparing and contrasting how they adapted Christianity to suit local circumstances. This is the first book to adopt a comparative landscape approach to this crucial subject.

It considers the imprint of early medieval Christianity on landscapes along the continent’s western shore from Galicia to Norway, and across the northern islands from Britain and Ireland to Iceland. The construction of new monuments clearly led to some major physical changes, but landscapes are not just affected by tangible, material alterations: they are also shaped by new types of knowledge and changing perceptions. Christianity was associated with many such changes including new ways of seeing the land that directly affected how landscapes were inhabited and managed. By examining how people chose to shape their landscapes, this book provides fresh perspectives on the Christianisation of Atlantic Europe.

Introduction: making Christian landscapes in the early medieval Atlantic world TOMÁS Ó CARRAGÁIN and SAM TURNER

IRELAND

Hallowed by saints, coveted by kings: Christianisation and land tenure in Rathdown, c. 400–900 GILL BOAZMAN

Reconstructing the territorial framework for ecclesiastical and secular power structures: a case study of the kingdom of Uí Fáeláin PAUL MACCOTTER

Conversion and consolidation in Leinster’s royal heartland PATRICK GLEESON and TOMÁS Ó CARRAGÁIN

Territoriality and the cult of Saint Ciarán of Saigir ANNE CONNON

Early ecclesiastical precincts and landscapes of Inishowen, County Donegal COLM O’BRIEN and MAX ADAMS

WALES AND SCOTLAND

Christianising the landscape in early medieval Wales: the island of Anglesey NANCY EDWARDS

Feeding the body and claiming the spirit(s): early Christian landscapes in west Wales RHIANNON COMEAU

Death and the formation of early Christian Scotland ADRIÁN MALDONADO

ENGLAND

The bones of the Northumbrian landscape: technologies of social change in the conversion period SAM TURNER and CHRIS FOWLER

Introducing Christianity to a challenging environment: the example of Norway SÆBJØRG WALAKER NORDEIDE

Alternative histories on the making of the early Christian landscape of Iceland STEINUNN KRISTJÁNSDÓTTIR

Dr Tomás Ó Carragáin of
the Archaeology Department, University College Cork, specialises in the
archaeology of early medieval Ireland and its European context (ad 400–1200).
His previous publications include Churches in Early Medieval Ireland:
Architecture, Ritual and Memory (New Haven and London: Yale University Press,
2010) and Inishmurray: Monks and Pilgrims in an Atlantic Landscape (Cork: The
Collins Press, 2008, co-authored with Jerry O’Sullivan).

Professor Sam Turner of
the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University,
specialises in the landscapes of Britain and Europe after the Roman period, and
on medieval archaeology. His previous publications include Wearmouth and
Jarrow: Northumbrian Monasteries in an Historic Landscape (Hatfield: University
of Hertford-shire Press, 2013, co-authored with Sarah Semple and Alex Turner),
Life in Medieval Landscapes: People and Places in the Middle Ages (Oxford:
Windgather Press, 2012, co-edited with Bob Silvester) and Making a Christian
Landscape: The Countryside in Early-Medieval Cornwall, Devon and Wessex
(Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2006).